Lithium battery build

[Lovey80]

Anyone got any charging advice ?

i ordered a new charger as old one went kaput and just replaced like with like

https://www.victronenergy.com/charge...t-ip65-charger

seems it’s lithium’s ion only and I now have lifepo batteries
Guess I bought the wrong one as can’t adjust the voltage as high as the battery specs want for charging 14.6 volts

These chargers are perfect for LifePo4 batteries. The larger the better. I have the 15A one and love it. Its standard Lithium Ion charge profile is a constant current to 14.2V then it will float at I think 13.8v. Perfect for Lifepo4. The difference between 14.6v and 14.2v that is allowed to get down to less than an amp before going to float is something in the vicinity of 0.1%. You can actually do a custom charge profile with that charger but I wouldn't bother. If you want to see for yourself you can do a test.

Step 1. Charge on the standard Victron lithium profile up to 14.2v. Watch it get right to the end and you'll see that less than 1A is being pushed in and even flicking from 0 to 0.;2 or something as it squeezes the last few drops of power in. Watch and pull the leads off the battery the second it flicks into float.

Step 2. Set up your custom charge profile to 14.6v. with the same float voltage of 13.8v. Put the leads back on your battery, it will take something like 1 minute or at most 2 minutes for the custom charge profile to finish.

@14.2v you are at 99.9% full. Cell degradation mainly occurs from 2 sources. 1. Charging and discharging in extreme temperature conditions. 2. High or low voltages for long periods of time. While I don't think there's much in it, charging to 14.2v gets you pretty much a full battery without getting the voltages up to the limits of the battery and potentially prolongs the life of your battery. Charging to 14.6v you will see no noticeable difference in capacity.

[stevej]

Thanks for that lovely80

will play around with it and see how it goes

[NAGG]

[/COLOR]

These chargers are perfect for LifePo4 batteries. The larger the better. I have the 15A one and love it. Its standard Lithium Ion charge profile is a constant current to 14.2V then it will float at I think 13.8v. Perfect for Lifepo4. The difference between 14.6v and 14.2v that is allowed to get down to less than an amp before going to float is something in the vicinity of 0.1%. You can actually do a custom charge profile with that charger but I wouldn't bother. If you want to see for yourself you can do a test.

Step 1. Charge on the standard Victrom lithium profile up to 14.2v. Watch it get right to the end and you'll see that less than 1A is being pushed in and even flicking from 0 to 0.;2 or something as it squeezes the last few drops of power in. Watch and pull the leads off the battery the second it flicks into float.

Step 2. Set up your custom charge profile to 14.6v. with the same float voltage of 13.8v. Put the leads back on your battery, it will take something like 1 minute or at most 2 minutes for the custom charge profile to finish.

@14.2v you are at 99.9% full. Cell degradation mainly occurs from 2 sources. 1. Charging and discharging in extreme temperature conditions. 2. High or low voltages for long periods of time. While I don't think there's much in it, charging to 14.2v gets you pretty much a full battery without getting the voltages up to the limits of the battery and potentially prolongs the life of your battery. Charging to 14.6v you will see no noticeable difference in capacity.

Basically charge your battery till it reaches the float stage ..... then you are good to go

Chris

[stevej]

Attachment 126743
56972394-25F7-4F8B-A511-6D33E321F14D.jpg

kings 120ah took 124 amps to charge from being flattened to cutting out

victron is sitting at 13.96 float as left it on overnight

[Lovey80]

Attachment 126743
56972394-25F7-4F8B-A511-6D33E321F14D.jpg

kings 120ah took 124 amps to charge from being flattened to cutting out

victron is sitting at 13.96 float as left it on overnight

Cycle 2 and cycle 3 where you charged @14.4v. Was there a load applied to the battery between cycle 1 and cycle 2? Is that 14.4v on the custom charge profile?

[chris69]

I did not think that lifepo4 cells needed float charging.

[stevej]

Cycle 2 and cycle 3 where you charged @14.4v. Was there a load applied to the battery between cycle 1 and cycle 2? Is that 14.4v on the custom charge profile?

Yeah ignore 2 and 3 for some reason the app remembered the old charger charging my ride on lawn mower months ago as the kids left the ignition on.
and cycle 1 was just me mucking around on another lithium but realised it wasnt the one i ran to shutdown.

the active cycle was the only one i was trying to show

[Lovey80]

I did not think that lifepo4 cells needed float charging.

Don’t think of it the same way as you would a lead acid float mode. In the lithium profile, the float mode simply reduces the voltage so that it doesn’t remain at those higher voltages for long periods of time which can degrade them. No power goes in in this phase unless there are small loads applied to the battery at the same time.

[chris69]

Well I’ve just bought a 230 amp EVE kit 4S with a 250 amp bms and 1 amp active balancer for $1175 so we will see how that powers things and that only weighs 19 kg.

[Lovey80]

Nice Chris. Which BMS and active balancer did you go with?

[chris69]

The kit comes with a Daly I was keen on the JK but they had no stock I’ll start with it and see how things work out ,the other place I’ve been keeping an eye on has had a massive price jump so I thought I better commit before prices go up , anyways I’ll get a lot of life camping out of it and I’ll ruin the bow mount on it and work out how long I’ll get out of it.

[Lovey80]

The kit comes with a Daly I was keen on the JK but they had no stock I’ll start with it and see how things work out ,the other place I’ve been keeping an eye on has had a massive price jump so I thought I better commit before prices go up , anyways I’ll get a lot of life camping out of it and I’ll ruin the bow mount on it and work out how long I’ll get out of it.

nothing wrong with Daly. I have a few of them. They’re simple but strong. Shit balancer though. Which active balancer did you get?

[chris69]

I just got that Daly 1 amp smart active balancer if it doesn’t work well I’ll get another one.

[Lovey80]

I just got that Daly 1 amp smart active balancer if it doesn’t work well I’ll get another one.

haven’t got experience with that one. Does it have a setting where it turns on and off? Ie doesn’t turn on until the volts hit 3.45v? Here may be a setting in there for balance start voltage?

[chris69]

Yer i think the app has that option i watch a lot of Andy from off the grid he goes over setting on the Daly.